STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — A 26-year-old undocumented immigrant from Venezuela is facing an attempted first-degree premeditated murder charge after Martin County deputies say he attacked a woman on Stuart Beach and repeatedly held her head underwater, believing he had killed her.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek identified the suspect as Said Alexander Hernandez-Gonzalez, a Port St. Lucie resident whose work visa expired and who is now in the country illegally.
“This is an extremely alarming case,” Budensiek said. “Random acts of violence like this are some of the most difficult crimes to solve — and that’s exactly what this was.”
According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded around 11 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, to a disturbance call at Stuart Beach, located at 889 NE Ocean Boulevard.
Budensiek said the victim had gone to the beach alone earlier that evening “to clear her head” and was walking north along the shoreline toward the Tiger Shores area while on the phone with her sister when the attack happened.
“About five minutes after passing him, she was brutally attacked,” Budensiek said. “She was grabbed around the throat, dragged into the ocean, and held down as she struggled to break free.”
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Investigators say the attacker knocked the victim’s phone out of her hand and threw it into the ocean, cutting off her call for help. The victim’s sister later told deputies she heard screaming and sounds of a struggle before the call disconnected around 10:56 p.m.
Budensiek said the suspect held the woman underwater for several minutes as she tried to time her breaths with the waves. At some point, the victim lost consciousness.
“The next thing she recalled was waking up half in and half out of the water,” he said.
The victim eventually crawled out of the ocean, crossed the dunes, and made her way south back toward the Stuart Beach entrance, where she encountered deputies. Deputies noted she was visibly distraught, wet, and had bruising on her neck and face.
Deputies and detectives initially had little information to identify a suspect. Budensiek said the break in the case came days later through an unrelated mental health call.
A 26-year-old Port St. Lucie man is facing an attempted first-degree murder charge after deputies say he attacked a woman on the beach in Stuart and tried to drown her in the ocean. (Google Maps)
On Sunday, Feb. 15, Port St. Lucie Police were contacted by a woman who reported her boyfriend was suicidal. While officers were speaking with the man, he allegedly told them he had murdered a woman on a beach in Martin County and left her for dead.
“That phone call is the reason we were able to solve this case,” Budensiek said.
Martin County detectives responded and identified the suspect as Said Alexander Hernandez-Gonzalez. Investigators say Hernandez-Gonzalez admitted he was at Stuart Beach that night, drinking vodka and smoking marijuana, and walked north along the same stretch of beach as the victim.
According to the sheriff, Hernandez-Gonzalez told investigators he believed the victim was recording him or talking on her phone and “went into a rage.”
“He admitted he smacked the phone out of her hand, pulled her into the ocean, and tried to drown her,” Budensiek said. “He said he held her down until she went limp and believed she was deceased.”
Budensiek said Hernandez-Gonzalez believed the victim was dead during his interview with detectives and showed no remorse when told she survived.
“When asked if he felt any remorse, his response was, ‘No. I don’t feel nothing,’” Budensiek said.
Hernandez-Gonzalez was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree premeditated murder. He is being held without bond at the Martin County Jail.
Budensiek described the attack as a rare and frightening random act of violence.
“There was no relationship. There was no prior connection,” he said. “She did many of the right things — she was on the phone, her husband knew where she was — but you never know who you’re dealing with.”